Featuring the best 80s music videos, TV shows, 80s celebrities and more!
Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing in the Dark’ is one of his biggest hits. It spent four weeks at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, and it sold over 1,000,000 singles in the U.S. This song helped his album ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ to become his best selling album of his career.
The music video below won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Stage Performance in 1985, and it featured a young Courtney Cox dancing on stage with Springsteen at the end.
‘Running Through The Fire’ is a song by John Cafferty and The Beaver Brown Band and is performed by Eddie and the Cruisers in Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!. A fun fact about the movie: The movie was made in just over 30 days back in 1989, and the concert scenes were filmed on April 24, 1989 in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Thomas & Mack Center in between sets of Bon Jovi’s headlining ‘New Jersey’ tour and after Skid Row’s opening set.
Enjoy this look back at Running Through The Fire from Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! as well as a look at John Cafferty and The Beaver Brown Band performing the song live in 2014!
Judas Priest’s You’ve Got Another Thing Coming has to be one of the top ten metal songs of all time! And, in 1981, it became their first top five hit in America when it peaked at #4 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock charts!
Enjoy this look back at Judas Priest’s music video for You’ve Got Another Thing Coming from 1981!
When it comes to awesome rock stars from the ’80s, Joan Jett is high up our list as one of the greatest, and she’s certainly one of the greatest female rockers of all time, in our humble opinion! In 1990, she released her 7th studio album called The Hit List. This was her first cover album, and nobody does a cover better than Joan Jett! The first two tracks from the album are awesome. There’s the cover of AC/DC’s ‘Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap’ below as well as an incredible cover of The Everly Brothers and later Nazareth’s iconic hit ‘Love Hurts’.
Enjoy a look back at both these covers from Joan Jett as well as the original versions from AC/DC, The Everly Brothers, and Nazareth!
Kix were around a lot longer than most of their 80’s rock band brethren. They released their self-titled debut album way back in 1981, but it wasn’t until their 1989 ‘Blow My Fuse’ album that they achieved a lot of commercial success. ‘Don’t Close Your Eyes’ was the fifth and last single released from the album and it peaked at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1989. It was their first and only top 40 hit on the Hot 100 charts.
In 1988, Britny Fox released their self-titled debut album, and the first single released was Long Way to Love, which peaked at number 100 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and number 33 on the Mainstream Rock chart. Arguably, their most remembered song though was their second single, Girlschool. It’s our favorite song from the band, and the music video was heavily played on MTV back in the late ’80s.
Enjoy this look back at Britny Fox’s music video for Girlschool as well as a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the Girlschool video!
More ’80s music videos from Britny Fox!
John Lennon released ‘(Just Like) Starting Over’ on October 24, 1980. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 charts on December 27, 1980, and spent five weeks at number one. Sadly, Lennon was killed on December 8th, and this was his last single released during his lifetime. He was only 40 years old when he was shot and killed in New York.
If you love Motley Crue, you’re gonna love this one. The song is called ‘Run For Your Life’, and it’s a song that was included on a 1983 Motley Crue demo tape that included this song as well as ‘Shout at the Devil’ and ‘Too Young to Fall in Love’. The latter two songs made it onto the Crue’s 1983 album ‘Shout at the Devil’, but ‘Run For Your Life’ was never released.
‘Fall On Me’ was REM’s first single released from their 1986 ‘Life’s Rich Pageant’ album, which is one of the greatest albums ever released from any musical genre. ‘Fall On Me’ was also their first top five hit on any Billboard chart when it peaked at number five on the Mainstream Rock charts in 1986.
‘Fool For Your Loving’ was originally released by Whitesnake in 1980 as the first single from their ’80 album ‘Ready an’ Willing’, and in 1989, they released it again as the first single from their ’89 album ‘Slip Of The Tongue’. The ’89 version was their highest charting rock single when it peaked at number two on the Mainstream Rock charts.
Femme Fatale was among the many female-led hair bands that achieved moderate success in the late ’80s. In 1988, they released their first album, which was a self-titled album. One of our favorite songs from the album was ‘Falling In and Out of Love’.
Enjoy the official music video as well as another video we found of lead singer Lorraine Lewis in 2013 still sounding great and as gorgeous as ever!
In the ’80s, it was all about big hair, big guitars and good looking lead singers! Enjoy this look back at ten of the hottest lead singers from some of our favorite ’80s rock bands!
Sebastian Bach – Skid Row
Jon Bon Jovi – Bon Jovi
Bret Michaels – Poison
Kip Winger – Winger
Vince Neil – Motley Crue
Axl Rose – Guns N’ Roses
Joe Elliott – Def Leppard
Joey Tempest – Europe
Mike Tramp – White Lion
David Lee Roth
Night Ranger were one of the rare bands with two lead singers and two lead guitarists. ‘When You Close Your Eyes’ was their top 20 follow up single to ‘Sister Christian’ in 1984. It peaked at number 14 on both the rock and Hot 100 charts and is definitely a fan favorite at concerts as you can see from this live performance from 1985!
The ’80s produced some of the best guitarists in rock history. Pictured above are left to right from the top:
CC Deville from Poison
Eddie Van Halen
Steve Clark from Def Leppard
George Lynch from Dokken
Slash from Guns N’ Roses
Randy Rhoads from Ozzy Osbourne’s band
Richie Sambora from Bon Jovi
Who is your favorite guitarist from the ’80s?
CC Deville and Poison – ‘Nothin’ But A Good Time’
Eddie Van Halen – ‘Eruption’ guitar solo
Steve Clark and Def Leppard – ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’
George Lynch and Dokken – ‘In My Dreams’
Slash and Guns N’ Roses – ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’
Randy Rhoads and Ozzy Osbourne – ‘Crazy Train’
Richie Sambora and Bon Jovi – ‘Wanted Dead Or Alive’
Poison’s ‘Every Rose Has Its Thorn’ is one of the most successful singles from any ’80s hair band. It hit number one on the Hot 100 charts as well as the Canadian charts in 1988.
In an interview on VH1’s Behind the Music, Bret Michaels said the inspiration behind the song came when he was in a laundromat one night and called his girlfriend on a pay phone. He heard a male voice in the background while talking to her and was devastated. He went back into the laundromat and wrote the lyrics to the song.
Enjoy this look back at Poison’s music video for Every Rose Has Its Thorn as well as a live performance from MTV’s New Year’s Eve Bash in 1988!
Skid Row’s 1989 self-titled debut album spawned three huge hits for Sebastian Bach and the original lineup. One of those hits was ‘I Remember You’, which peaked at #6 on the Hot 100 charts in 1989. The band is still touring today, but without Bach as the lead singer. They’ve gone through a number of different lead singers, and in 2022, Erik Gronwall joined the band. I have to admit, he’s definitely the best lead singer they’ve had since Bach left the band.
Enjoy this look back at Skid Row’s original music video for I Remember You as well as a live performance from 2022 with Erik Gronwall as lead singer.
Original Music Video:
Current Lineup with Erik Gronwall on Lead Vocals:
Band Aid was a charity supergroup formed in 1984 composed of 40 artists to raise awareness and funds for the Ethiopian famine in 1983-1985.
The band consisted of:
Robert “Kool” Bell (Kool & the Gang)
Bono (U2)
Pete Briquette (The Boomtown Rats)
Adam Clayton (U2)
Phil Collins (Genesis and solo artist)
Chris Cross (Ultravox)
Simon Crowe (The Boomtown Rats)
Sara Dallin (Bananarama)
Siobhan Fahey (Bananarama)
Johnny Fingers (The Boomtown Rats)
Bob Geldof (The Boomtown Rats)
Boy George (Culture Club)
Glenn Gregory (Heaven 17)
Tony Hadley (Spandau Ballet)
John Keeble (Spandau Ballet)
Gary Kemp (Spandau Ballet)
Martin Kemp (Spandau Ballet)
Simon Le Bon (Duran Duran)
Marilyn
George Michael (Wham!)
Jon Moss (Culture Club)
Steve Norman (Spandau Ballet)
Rick Parfitt (Status Quo)
Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran)
Francis Rossi (Status Quo)
Sting (The Police)
Andy Taylor (Duran Duran)
James “J.T.” Taylor (Kool & the Gang)
John Taylor (Duran Duran)
Roger Taylor (Duran Duran)
Dennis Thomas (Kool & the Gang)
Midge Ure (Ultravox)
Martyn Ware (Heaven 17)
Jody Watley
Paul Weller (The Style Council)
Keren Woodward (Bananarama)
Paul Young
In 1987, John Mellencamp released his version of the holiday classic ‘I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus’ from the ‘A Very Special Christmas’ benefit album. The video below was filmed during his 1987 ‘Lonesome Jubilee’ tour and features his daughter Teddi singing at the end. Too cute!
Guns N’ Roses’ Paradise City was the 4th and last single released from their 1987 debut album ‘Appetite For Destruction’. It was their third top ten hit in a row peaking at number five on the Hot 100 charts. The previous single Sweet Child O’ Mine was their first and only number one song on the Hot 100 charts. They followed up Paradise City with another top five song, Patience, from their G N’ R Lies album.
In 1986, AC/DC released their album ‘Who Made Who’, and the title song was a top 40 rock hit for the Aussie rock legends. Besides being the soundtrack to Stephen King’s movie, ‘Maximum Overdrive’, it was also a compilation album featuring songs from previous albums. Enjoy and RIP Malcolm Young…
